H,

allow the question, is this for business or leisure travel? If it's for business and you aren't involved in month long missions in changing climates with tons of gear, you got too much luggage.

Second, Bruno's points were already very well made. There's hardly anything to add but smaller points.

Several points:

Ridiculously durable is important only for CHECKED luggage, unless of course you treat your luggage worse than the baggage handlers, which I've seen from some pax.

Even then, a bullet proof life-time warranty for the checked piece is almost more important than a super durable piece. Of course, it should be durable, but what if airline damage is not included in the warranty and something does break?

Weight/Size compliance. Re-read Bruno's post. You'd have to go with a 25-26" suitcase if your limit is 50lbs/23kg. Anything else quickly weighs more than that. For carry-on, to be on the safe side a 20" softsided shoulderbag with no wheels like the Tristar should do.

For warranty and built quality you want to look at the Travelpro Platinum line, Briggs Riley and the ES line by Eagle Creek.

There are others that have either a great warranty or very good built quality. But those are the top three lines that come to my mind when BOTH is required.

Besides looks, there is no real reason to get a matching set. Also, black ballistic nylon pretty much looks alike. So if you get all the luggage in black ballistic nylon, it will look like it's matching even if it's from different brands. For example I use a TP Plat5 22" roller (love it, read my review) with a Tumi 26141 briefcase and a BR briefcase, depending on which briefcase best fits the mission. They both look good with the TP roller.

You will also have to make a decision in terms of packing style. Do you want tons of features and little pockets? That'll cost you in money and weight. Or are you the "one big compartment" type of packer? That'll be lighter and cheaper.

TP, BR, Tumi are on the more elaborate side.

Eagle Creek, LL Bean, Redoxx are on the more spartan side.

Tom Bihn is somewhere in between.

Finally, don't discount brands like Delsey and Samsonite. They are both huge luggage specialists and you can find really good quality luggage at very good prices from them.

If you want as good as bullet proof and VERY full-featured you could try to go with an assortment of Andiamo Valoroso pieces. I have a whole closet full. Fabulous luggage, wonderfully made, good looking, rugged yet elegant, highly functional, rather rare (I enjoy a little exclusivity). Downside? A bit heavier than even BR and Tumi, hard to find because they went out of business, thus no warranty anymore. When they still were in business the Valoroso line had the best warranty in the industry (life-time, everything included, even shipping and replacement bags for the time yours is repaired).

I have only once heard of a guy who broke the telescopic handles of his Valoroso and I don't really want to know what he did to it.

Till

P.S. Welcome to FT!